25% of $20 billion dollars is an F…for Feinberg

Standards and Poors loves me, why won't everyone else?

Ken Feinberg announced yesterday the oil spill fund has paid out $5 billion dollars to claimants to ensure the entire Gulf Coast region is made whole, and considering that British Petroleum put $7 billion dollars into an escrow account at the behest of Barack Obama and all things mea culpa, well kudos to you Ken!

Damn good show!

$5 out of $7 billion dollars spent on people who lost business and their businesses, their family’s security, their health, life as they knew it, Feinberg and the GCCF went beyond the pale, not only making sure everybody is whole, but they’re keeping an extra $2 billion dollars around, just in case, just to ensure no one, and they mean no one, slips through the cracks after the fact, so let me be the first to say…Ken? You. Are. The. Man. And furthermore…

What?

$20 billion?

What do you mean, $20 billion?

BP put into an account $20 billion and 16 months after the oil started flowing Ken has spent only five?

Ken Feinberg and the GCCF released a summary report which found: “The GCCF has largely succeeded in its primary objective — to compensate those individuals and businesses who can demonstrate financial harm due to the Oil Spill…the compensation program has not been perfect; but several mid-course corrections have been made in an effort to deal with the constructive criticism offered by victims of the spill, public officials, and others.”

The compensation program has not been perfect?

You made several mid-course corrections?

You’ve largely succeeded?

Hey uh, Ken?

Some might beg to differ…

The people of the Gulf Coast don’t want to hear you’ve largely succeeded, simply because this also means you’ve often failed. One failure is a family, two failures is two families and three failures is, you guessed it, three families. So if you’ve largely succeeded, and by your own estimates you’ve received almost a million claims, how many mistakes have you often failed at?

And how many people have your failures fucked?

Spending 25% of the money you’ve been allotted to spend ain’t a success to anyone but BP, and your law firm, which BP now pays $1.5 million dollars per month for its ongoing disaster allocation business. To every person in the Gulf who lost a business, had to spend time from their kids and lost their life savings, who are coughing too much and having trouble breathing, who are disappointed every time they check their shrimp catch or lose a tear when they worry about their future…

Your $5 billion celebratory PR announcement?

It strikes me as being mere sleight-of-hand, a distraction from the mistakes you’ve made and the people you’ve left behind…

No offense.

Ken?

Things are getting better, many are getting paid something, and changes to the GCCF process will definitely benefit the oyster industry, but far too many still remain wanting, or out of luck and time. The GCCF, size of the job notwithstanding, seems hardly in a position to brag about spending 25% or to celebrate a process which leaves paid claimants only hoping the health of the Gulf improves, and no recourse if it does not…so get back to work and keep working until you’ve completely succeeded.